Ms. Cook, 40, currently is an associate creative director at the shop and has lent her hand to ad campaigns often crafted by men.

Recently, she helped develop spots for Anheuser-Busch's Michelob beer and Adobe Systems. She also recently was named to help head up creative on the Match.com account.

An insight on life
That's not bad for the Modesto, Calif.-born Ms. Cook, who says she did not have a clue about the opportunities in advertising when she graduated from the University of California-Berkeley with a degree in comparative literature, English and Latin. She did, however, have one important insight on life: People who did well in life loved what they did, she says.

Ms. Cook took an entry-level advertising job in the San Francisco office of what was then Chiat/Day. Later, she went to work in Chiat/Day's New York office.

Levi's 'Women' campaign
Some of Ms. Cook's celebrated work came during a stint at Foote, Cone & Belding, San Francisco, where her credits included animated spots for Levi Strauss & Co.'s jeans for women. The Levi ads were "Woman Finding Love" and "Woman Breaking the Mold," in which a figure of a woman on a restroom door comes to life and breaks the circle that contained her image.

At Hal Riney & Partners, San Francisco, now Publicis Groupe's Publicis & Hal Riney, Ms. Cook created commercials for General Motors Corp.'s Saturn. At Omnicom Group-owned Goodby, her recent work includes spots for Sonicare in which an unlikely tooth fairy -- a grumpy guy in a tutu -- visits consumers.

In addition to the occasional voice-over work, Ms. Cook also has helped the agency in the new-business department, landing the Elizabeth Arden fragrance account.

Being partner
"I knew Jay Chiat [the later founder of Omnicom Group's TBWA/Chiat/Day] and Hal Riney [chairman emeritus of his eponymous agency] to some degree," says Ms. Cook, who's the mother of Nell, 2, and Remi, 4. "But I want to be a partner at Goodby," she says. "That would be great to me."

Co-Chairman Rich Silverstein says, "Mimi represents the agency in the best light."

When asked if Ms. Cook would be promoted to director, he says, "She's pretty kick-ass."